Oregon Ducks to receive ruling from NCAA Wednesday morning

View full sizeThe NCAA Committee on Infractions is expected to announce penalties, if any, for the Ducks' use of recruiting services during former coach Chip Kelly's tenure.Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

Twenty-seven months, more than $200,000 in legal
fees, 24 victories, two BCS bowl game wins, a coaching change and
countless uniform combinations later, the NCAA's investigation into the
Oregon Ducks' football recruiting practices from 2008 through 2011
will reach a resolution today.

The university announced Tuesday that at 7:30 a.m. today, the NCAA
Committee on Infractions will release its report, revealing penalties
and sanctions, if any, Oregon will be hit with as the result of the
Ducks' improper use of football scouting services
-- largely under the tenure of former head coach Chip Kelly.

"We have been informed by the NCAA that the Committee on Infractions
report on the University of Oregon will be released tomorrow," Oregon
athletic department officials said in a statement Tuesday. "Until we
have received and reviewed the report we will
not comment."

At 8 a.m. today, NCAA officials will hold a teleconference with
media. Sometime in the afternoon, department officials, including
athletic director Rob Mullens, could be made available to the media.

Mullens' predecessor, former Oregon athletic director and long-time
booster Pat Kilkenny, not bound by restrictions to comment, said Tuesday
that he is thankful the ordeal is coming to an end and he is hopeful
that serious penalties, such as a bowl ban,
won't be forthcoming.

"Maybe I'm naive but I would be virtually shocked if something
significant was handed down," he said. "If there was, I don't think the
punishment would fit the crime."

Kilkenny, athletic director from 2007 to 2010, said that he's
believed all along that an innocent oversight led to what the NCAA
called a "major violation" and that he didn't believe anyone had
purposely or egregiously violated NCAA rules.

"Given what I know about the people and the nature of their
character, I can't imagine that they did anything that was significantly
wrong," Kilkenny said.

Reports surfaced in March 2011 that the football program had paid
$25,000 for a national recruiting package from Houston-based recruiting
consultant Willie Lyles and Complete Scouting Services. The payment
arrived one month after highly recruited running
back Lache Seastrunk signed a letter of intent with Oregon in February
2010.

Lyles served as a mentor to Seastrunk, out of Temple, Texas. Later it
surfaced that Lyles had a similar relationship with several other
Oregon players from Texas, including LaMichael James, Tra Carson, Dontae
Williams and Marcus Davis.

Many programs use recruiting services to provide information on
recruits outside a team's region. Using such services is permitted
within NCAA guidelines.

However, a review of the national recruiting package Lyles provided
Oregon in 2011 consisted of names of players who had graduated from high
school in 2010, thus making the package worthless. Included was a
defensive lineman who had played for Auburn against
Oregon in the BCS National Championship game.

Upon publication of Yahoo Sports' story disclosing the $25,000
payment to Lyles in March 2011, Oregon immediately launched an internal
investigation and hired the law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King.

Oregon contended that it had done nothing wrong and that hiring Lyles
had been cleared by its compliance office. Kelly declined interview
requests to discuss his relationship with Lyles. But Lyles spoke to
media outlets at length about his connections with
several football programs and said he had been paid by some for
influence over high-profile recruits out of Texas.

It is against NCAA rules for a university to pay a third party to influence a student-athlete to attend its school.

View full sizeBaylor's Lache Seastrunk, once a controversial Oregon Duck, is at the center of the NCAA's investigation into Oregon's recruiting practices during Chip Kelly's tenure. AP photo

In August 2011, Seastrunk, who redshirted in 2012, transferred to
Baylor to be closer to home. He had been fifth on Oregon's running back
depth chart after not living up to expectations.

In September 2011, Oregon announced that the NCAA had notified the
school of its inquiry into possible violations involving Lyles.

In February 2012, after the Ducks had won their first Rose Bowl in
94-plus years, the NCAA released its proposed findings of violations,
alleging that Oregon had broken rules in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

UO improperly used three recruiting or scouting services, Elite
Scouting Services, New Level Athletics and Complete Scouting Services,
between 2008-2010 by accepting oral reports on players when only written
reports and videos are permitted, according to
the NCAA. Also, CSS had not provided Oregon with the NCAA-mandated
minimum for the number of formal reports it must provide a school in a
calendar year.

In the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, Oregon used an impermissible athletic department employee to recruit.

The athletic department failed to adequately monitor the football
program's use of recruiting or scouting services and failed to
adequately establish policies and procedures to monitor the football
program's use of recruiting or scouting services, the report
said.

The documents included seven violations but descriptions of four were
completely redacted by the school, citing the Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act, or state law and Oregon Administrative Rules. Another
was redacted partially.

The release of the findings prompted Mullens to issue a written
statement: "While we have no specific timetable on the inquiry, we
remain in close communication with the NCAA as the process advances
cooperatively through each stage. Currently, pursuant to
the NCAA's process, we are in constructive negotiations with the NCAA
on the draft of their proposed findings."

In December 2012, before Oregon's win in the Fiesta Bowl, The
Oregonian requested documents pertaining to the investigation to that
point.

The documents, some 515 pages, weren't released until April of this year, but what wasn't redacted proved compelling.

Revealed was that Oregon and the NCAA agreed that the Ducks coaches
committed at least one major violation between 2008 and 2011.

A summary disposition memorandum dated Oct. 30, 2012, and signed by
UO president Michael Gottfredson and Mullens, showed that Oregon agreed
"that this case is major in nature."

UO agreed that it improperly used Elite Scouting Services, New Level
Athletics and Complete Scouting Services between 2008-2010 by accepting
oral reports on players.

UO proposed a self-imposed two-year probation for the football
program and a reduction of one scholarship for each of the next three
seasons.

The NCAA rejected that offer after both sides were unable to agree on
the severity of one violation. The impasse resulted in the case moving
to a hearing before the NCAA's Committee on Infractions.

Those hearings occurred in secrecy less than a week after the documents were released.

Kelly and Mullens met with the committee in Dallas, Texas, on April
19. It was reported that Kelly testified that UO used Lyles in the same
way it used other recruiting services.

Following the hearings, the case went into the hands of the Committee
on Infractions to render a decision and determine Oregon's fate.

On Monday, UO released invoices showing that Bond, Schoeneck &
King has billed the University of Oregon $208,991.48 for legal work
performed over a 24-month period through March of this year as part of
the school's internal investigation.